Yellowstone and Star Valley Part 2

You can read about the first part of our Summer trip here The second part of our trip was spent in the Beautiful Star Valley area.  We stayed at my sister's house in Alpine, but we went as far south as Afton.  

Day 5: Star Valley Ranch Day. My parents rented a cabin in Star Valley Ranch.  This is the same ranch that I came to many times as a kid.  My grandparents owned a park model and membership at the ranch, so we would come every summer.  It has changed a lot in some ways, but in others it is exactly the same. The playground was the same, only worse. haha The giant eyeball is gone, but some of the same OLD toys are still there.  I am 33 now, and those playground toys are THE SAME as when I was a kid. lol The bumper boats are gone, but instead there were a lot of pickle ball courts that were not there back in the day.  The pool was still there, but the hot tub was gone, and the bridge by the creek that we use to cross has been taken down.  They did put a new one in- in a different place, but it is only a foot bridge.  

So for out day at Star Valley Ranch we went for a walk along the creek, played pickle ball, played at the playground, went wading in the creek, and swimming in the pool. 

Day 6: 4th of July

First Festivity: Parade in Afton. This parade was pretty fun.  The kids ended up with way too much candy.  Zaylee and I ended up eating way too many Popsicles. We saw a unicorn. :) Almost all of us got wet from the firetrucks.  Payson, Avenly, and Rebekah hid behind a camp chair when the firetrucks came with their hoses.  The hiding action was cute, but the camp chair did not save them from the water.  They got pretty wet after all. 

Second Activity: Hike at Intermittent Spring. The hike is about 1.5 miles round trip.  It was beautiful and there were butterflies everywhere.  My new phone has an awesome camera, so I got some pretty cool pictures on this hike. 

Activity 3: Picnic at the park.  We didn't eat lunch until after our hike, and Tina and Brant knew of a perfect park by the river.  We were able to eat in some shade, and we had the park to ourselves.  Caleb, my nephew, gave us all massages, and it was an enjoyable/relaxing lunch after our hike.  

Festivity 4: BBQ at Tina and Brant's house.  What is the 4th of July without a BBQ?  Brant grilled some hamburgers and hotdogs. Right now they have a big backyard with GRASS, so my kids LOVED playing in it.  It was perfect for our BBQ, pop-its, smoke-bombs, attacking Uncle Jason on the tramp, and human piniata (Aaron is a good sport). 

Festivity 4: Fireworks of course!!  We walked over to the field where they were launching the fireworks.  We were right under them, and could see them falling down on us as we laid down.  I brought the tarp, and it's a good thing I did because the grass was very tall.  By the end of the fireworks my eyes were going crazy with allergies.  

The last event for the night was sparklers in Tina's front yard.  Avenly did not want to hold hers by herself, but she still thought they were pretty cool.

Day 7: Last Full Day- Floating the Salt Creek River. Now this was an adventure!  It is a slow river, but it was somewhat far from relaxing for most of us. ha ha It started out as a nice sunny float for about the first 30 yards. Josh and I were towing the Crowther's little raft with Payson, Avenly, and Rebekah in tow. (Zaylee was with my mom and cousin Tennyson at the cabin). In the river was a big stick pile.  We hadn't got use to towing, yet, so the raft went one way and the kayak went the other.  The little raft got stuck.  My pregnant sister jumped out of her raft to help us.  It wasn't too bad, but it scared the little girls, so after that, they just wanted in the kayak.  After we put them in the kayak with us, Payson just rode the raft for a bit by himself.  At some point, he ended up in our Kayak, Rebekah ended up with Jason and Chelsea, and the raft got tied to Brant's kayak with Tina and Anna in tow.  It worked out, though, because about 3/4ths of the way down the river, the storm hit.  It started with a little rain, then HAIL!!  Yes- it was hailing on us on the river.  We still had the rope hooked onto our kayak, so we ended up towing Derek, who was on an intertube.  He was a good sport being pounded on the intertube in the hail.  Payson was not handling it so well, and he said a prayer that it would stop.  It did stop, and maybe that is why.  We finally made it back, and by the time we got dressed it was hot again outside. Oh, and we did see a beaver on the river (before the storm).

After the river we went out to dinner, and then played some kickball.  Then Grandpa Doug took the kids golfing.  Payson has been begging to go golfing all summer.  He was so excited to finally go, and Grandpa is a good teacher.

The last day was just a travel day for me.  Zaylee and I flew out of the Idaho Falls airport, and got home way before Josh and the other two.  They drove home after Josh worked for a bit with stops at Grandpa Jones work and Grandma Molly's house.  They finally made it home around 1 am.

It really was a great trip.  I loved the cooler weather.  I loved spending time with my family. I am grateful we could go, and that it turned out to be such a great trip.

Yellowstone and Star Valley Part 1

For are main summer trip this year we went to Yellowstone National Park and spent some time in Star Valley area at my sister's house in Alpine, WY.  It was so nice to get out of the Las Vegas Summer heat for a week, and it was especially nice to spend time with my family.  

Josh had gone North for some work trips, so he had his car. The kids and I flew to SLC to meet him to start our trip.  We slept at Molly's house the night we flew in and headed out the next (late) morning after Josh did some work.

Day 1- Travel Day with stops along the way

First stop: Lunch at Big Jud's in Ashton.  I showed Payson my elementary school where I went to 3rd grade.  I was tempted to show my family our house, but I wasn't exactly sure what street it was on, and I didn't want to drive around looking for it.

Next stop: Lower and Upper Mesa Falls.  Both Falls were beautiful.  Josh had never seen them, and Payson was thrilled to take pictures of them with his camera.  At the lower Falls Avenly slipped and cut her knee, but she forgot about her "owie" by the time we got to the upper falls.

Next Stop: Big Springs in Island Park. Both girls were sleeping when we stopped here, so Payson and I got out to see the big fish, except the big fish were not there, like I remember.  The seagulls  were there eating the fish food.  It was kind of a bummer that the fish were hiding, but the water was still crystal clear and beautiful.

Last stop: West Yellowstone/ our WET camp ground.  The only night we slept in the tent was the rainiest night. :(  It's like Mother Nature knows when we are going to put up the tent, so she calls the rain.  We stayed warm, thanks to Grandpa Mayo giving us extra blankets he had in his car.  The Mayos and Molly were also venturing to Yellowstone the same time we were, so we were able to get ready for bed in their hotel room.  That was nice of them to let us do that.  

Day 2: The North loop in Yellowstone

First couple stops: hot spot and bubbling river.  I can't remember the names of these two places.  They were quick stops, and you didn't have to walk far to see them.  They were good introductions of what was to come later.

Next Stop (First Main stop/hike): Artist Paint Pots.  There was not a lot of parking in this small parking lot, but we got lucky, and I am so glad we did.  The kids were amazed at the boiling water, steamy streams, and HOT bubbling muddy puddles.  The different colors were so cool, and the view was awesome.  

Next Stop: Norris Geyser Basin. You could spend a lot of time here if you allowed yourself.  After walking the loop on the right through the museum, we headed for Steamboat Geyser on the other side.  Steamboat Geyser has not gone off for 3 years, and this year it has decided to go off 11 times already. By "going off" I mean really launching itself in the air.  It had several 10 foot shoots while we watched it, but apparently it can get up to 300 feet.  Josh just told me he read that the geyser went off again yesterday.

Next Stop: Mammoth Hot Springs.  Here we had lunch in the cafeteria.  Molly and Grandma and Grandpa Mayo were still in Mammoth just finishing their lunch, so they came and said hi to us while we ate.  After we ate, we walked over to see Mammoth Hot Spring.  On the way, I recognized "The Rock" where I had my picture taken in front of with my cousin  many years ago when I came as a kid.  I tried to recreate that picture from 24 years ago, but there were a few differences.  1- My cousin was not with me this time around, so he is not in the second picture, and 2- back then they let you go right up to the rock.  Now-a-days you can not go by the rock.  You have to stay on the path.  I also took a picture of my kids, kind of like the one that Lance and I had.

I do not remember the actual hot spring as a kid, so it was extra impressive when I saw it this time around. The pictures really do not do it justice, and it is much cooler in person.

Our last stop was over the Bear Tooth Highway, the highest elevation highway in the Northern Rockies, in Red Lodge, MT.  On the way we saw elk, buffalo, a fox, prong horn, 3 baby cubs in a tree, and mountain goats. 

Day 3: Lower Loop of Yellowstone

Our destination was near Jackson in a place called Moran, where we had a little cabin booked for the night. After church we drove through Yellowstone to get there, and marveled at some of God's beautiful creations. As we were driving there was a stand still of traffic.  We were all looking ahead to see what everyone else was seeing when Zaylee noticed the bear walking by our car and said, "Uh, Oh!"  

We didn't really do any hikes this day, but we stopped and saw some water falls, thermal hot spots/fumaroles/mudpots, and of course Old Faithful. 

Day 4: Moran, WY- Buffalo Valley Ranch/ Grand Teton National Park

Josh had a lot of work to do, but the ranch we stayed at had wifi, and lucky for us it was a fun little place to hang out for the day while he worked.  The cabin was fun with bunk beds, and the ranch had a half basketball court, games in the lodge, and even a baby cow we went and saw.  Plus, I bought the kids huckleberry bear suckers from the gift shop.

After Josh got some work done, we went to String Lake in Grand Teton National Park.  Zaylee just wanted to push the stroller, and she literally pushed it right in the water, and kept going until we stopped her.  At that point, we all decided to take our shoes off and wade our feet. After drying our toes and putting our shoes back on, we let Zaylee push the stroller on the path along the lake for awhile before turning around. 

For dinner we stopped in Jackson Hole, and since it stays light soooo late where we were at, we decided to walk around a bit.  We had huckleberry ice cream before dinner, and then had pizza at an old movie theater turned into a wood burning pizza place. We stopped at Jackson Hole Square before heading back to the car to go to my sister's house. The evening flew by, and before we knew it, it was 9:30 pm.